Economics textbooks insist that stock prices reflect the future stream of a company’s profits on any given day. For all the brainpower devoted to these forecasts, however, they are essentially rough estimates of what may happen over the next twelve months and wild guesses about anything after that.

US President Donald Trump’s tariffs are giving international stocks a serious lift and at the same time helping to end the S&P 500 Index’s run of global dominance — at least for now.

U.S. stocks drifted to a mixed finish as President Donald Trump’s tariffs on dozens of countries had only a muted effect on markets worldwide.